Gauri Shinde: Can't tell actors how to emote over phone

Gauri Shinde

Agreeing that artistes emerge so much the wiser after every project, Gauri Shinde says her latest ad shoot taught her a valuable lesson - to be articulate with instructions. "I couldn't make hand gestures to explain things. Also, I had to remember that my right, on camera, becomes their left," laughs the director who remotely shot a series of commercials for messaging service WhatsApp during the lockdown.

To be able to pull off the shoot, Shinde realised it was imperative to have a competent director of photography (DoP) and the right actors. She struck gold with her casting - in her 60-second film, Sulabha Arya wonderfully depicts how the lockdown has left senior citizens lonelier than ever while Amruta Subhash shows how we are only a video call away from our loved ones.

Amruta Subhash in the commercial

"We were lucky with Sulabha Arya because her son is a DoP. He shot her portions at home," reveals Shinde, adding that Subhash self-shot her film as the 10-member crew - including the director, editor and sound recordist - doled out instructions. "We had created a storyboard before the ads were shot. We did tech as well as costume rehearsals for two days. During the shoot too, we filmed every [sequence] twice over so that we do not find anything missing when at the edit table. Our crew was on video call, and the footage was simultaneously recorded."

Exciting as it was to helm a project in such unusual circumstances, the director also battled her share of frustration. "Over the phone, you can't tell your actors how to emote. The intimate space that a director shares with her performers was missing. For instance, in the haircut ad, I wanted to tell Amruta exactly which strand to cut," she grins.

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